Building a 500HP 383 means producing just over 1.30HP per cubic inch. This is easily accomplished using good heads, a healthy hydraulic roller cam and performance intake manifold. The short-block should feature a 10.0:1 compression ratio, something that will run on pump gas with aluminum heads and a reasonable timing curve.

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Patriot Performance supplied more than enough cylinder head for our 500HP combination, as its 225 CNC-ported Super Street heads flowed 293 CFM on the intake side. Given the flow rates, we suspect the Patriot Performance heads might support 600HP on the right combination, but combining them with the Comp XR294HR hydraulic roller cam and a ProComp single plane intake resulted in peak power numbers of 538HP and 506 lb-ft of torque.

Despite the use of the single-plane intake, torque production exceeded 475 lb-ft from 4,100 RPM to 5,900 RPM, and never dipped below 450 lb-ft. This would make a killer street motor and offer more than enough power for occasional trips to the strip. For the adventurous few, the forged internals from ProComp would also withstand a healthy dose of nitrous.

Stepping up from the 500HP range to exceeding 600 takes attention to detail. In this case, attention to detail meant adding wilder cam timing and even more cylinder head flow than the 500HP combination. The head flow came from a set of Super 23 230 heads from Trick Flow Specialties. As the name implies, the Super 23 230 heads retained the conventional 23-degree valve angle, but offered sizable 230cc intake ports to maximize flow. According to Trick Flow, the Super 23 230 heads flowed a whopping 325 CFM on the intake-more than enough to support our 600HP 400. Though it was possible to reach the 600hp mark with a hydraulic roller cam, we stepped up to the extra power and RPM offered by a solid roller from Bullet. When combined with a static compression ratio of 11.5:1 and a Dart single-plane intake, the result was 620HP and 529 lb-ft of torque. The wicked small block exceeded 500 lb-ft from 4,500 RPM to 6,400 RPM. From this point on, increasing the power output of a small-block will start to get seriously expensive and it might be wise to look into forced induction or nitrous.